Rolls are automatically formed from raw dough and are characteristically placed on a conveyer to be transported to a baking pan. It has been found desirable to imprint designs in the rolls to render the finished product more attractive and desirable. For example, by imprinting the rolls with appropriate designs, the roll, when baked, has the appearance of a hand-rolled roll with indentations to facilitate the breaking of the roll into smaller portions. The utilization of roll-forming drums having a suitable design thereon is old in the art. Such prior art apparatus utilize drums having a negative of the design formed therein rotatably positioned on a shaft over the conveyor. As the forming drums are rotated, the raw dough rolls passing therebeneath on the conveyor are imprinted or formed with a suitable design.
However, registration between the raw dough roll and the forming drum is not possible with such prior art apparatus. Accordingly, the result of the prior art apparatus was the formation of rolls with a designed design, but with the design substantially randomly positioned on the roll. The problem of registration of the design on the raw dough roll is further complicated by the fact that the dough is usually deposited on the moving conveyor in rows aligned transverse to the conveyor. The raw dough rolls in each row are almost always imperfectly aligned so that the rolls will pass under their respective forming drums at different times. Attempts at synchronizing the position of the raw dough roll on the conveyor and the rotation of the raw dough roll on the conveyor and the rotation of the dough-forming drums have resulted in extremely complex machinery with results that are not entirely satisfactory.